ONGOLE: Tension built up at the Two Town police station here on Monday morning following the death of a woman in custody under suspicious circumstances on Sunday night. While the police claim it to be a suicide, women’s organisations alleged that the victim was tortured to death.
Following a protest by women’s outfits, SP Navin Chand suspended the SI, head constable, three constables and two home guards attached to the station.
According to reports, the victim, Jyothi Rachana, her husband Sunil and their three-year-old child were brought from Visakhapatnam for interrogation in a case and kept in a room on the first floor of the station.
However, late in the night, the police claimed that Rachana had hanged herself with a chunni around 10 p.m.
after her husband and the child had gone out.
According to the police, Rachana and complainant G Venkateswara Rao’s daughter, Anuradha, became close friends when they studied together in Vijayawada a few years ago. Following a marital dispute, Anuradha came back to her parents’ house. Her sister Sandhya also suffered a similar fate.
Recently, Rachana invited Anuradha to Visakhapatnam with a job offer.
(She had worked in Mumbai and Dubai earlier but it was not clear what kind of a job she did.) Accordingly, the two sisters along with their mother, Bharathi went to Vizag 10 days ago.
On September 18, Anuradha called up her father and sought his help saying they were in some trouble.
(The police did not specify what it was).
Acting on a complaint from Venkateswara Rao, II town SI Altaf Hussain went to Vizag on Sept 19 and found that Anuradha was missing from Rachana’s house.
When Rachana couldn’t tell the whereabouts of Anuradha, except that she had gone to Mumbai, the SI arrested her and brought her to Ongole along with her husband and child. As the news of Rachana’s death spread, women’s organisations staged a dharna in front of the police station and organised rallies in the town demanding suspension of the policemen involved in the incident.
They alleged that the SI had kept Rachana in the station at night in violation of rules.
Police higher-ups are awaiting post-mortem report to intiate further action in the case.
The suspended cops are identified as: Nagaraju (head constable), Sambasiva Rao, Sambiah and Rajiah (constables) and Anjiah and Jyoti (home guards).